sylvis and peach headed back to orlando this morning to play with writersblock before their flight home in the morning.  hubby spent the day nauseated.  i worked on and off all day and night trying to get caught back up between taking care of my husband.  i even donated blood while waiting on one of his prescriptions to be filled.  while i would much rather for him to pass the stone without surgery, i am so relieved to know that it will be done with tomorrow afternoon, one way or the other.  the constant pain has worn him down and my constant concern and helplessness has worn me down.

we went to the urologist this morning.  nightingale, who i’ve been texting for medical advice non-stop since thursday, had gotten hubby an appointment with the head of the urological center.  she told me last night not to let him eat or drink after midnight and i think the plan was to take him straight into surgery this morning.  remember how bloated hubby was last night?  he sweat off five pounds during the night.  his fever was gone, the bloating was minimal, and he had no pain.  he wasn’t sure whether he needed to go in to the dr or not so he called as soon as the office opened.  they told him that it sounded as though the stone had probably passed into the bladder but they still wanted him to come in because of all the water retention.  they told him he should eat.  we got there, waited forever and a year, and the pain came back in full force while we sat in the waiting room.  of course, when we got in to see the dr, they were all ready to take him to the surgical center to take care of things once and for all.  and then they asked when he last ate.  within minutes, nightingale was texting me that she knew he didn’t eat because she told us so many times not to let him eat!  oops.  i told her that the dr’s office had told him to… it wasn’t my fault… promise!  i suppose it was all for the better anyhow.  hubby got a better explanation of what the surgery would entail and freaked and begged for some extra time to try to pass the stone on his own.  the doc told him to double up some of his meds and scheduled him for surgery on wednesday, if needed.  so, after almost an entire day at the doctor’s,  i took my hubby home in much the same condition as he started. 

while we were gone, sylvis and peach had a good time yakking and playing on the beach

peach yakkin'

sylvis yakkin'

after hubby had gotten home and gotten easy again, he wanted to try to get a little exercise.  we started out for a walk but only made it a quarter mile or so before he was doubling over again.  on the way back, i walked by his side with my arm around him for support.  my poor guy. 

playing with cobalt's macro mode

propping up my love

obligatory beach sunset pic

how do you roll a cooler on water?

hubby's extremely brief attempt at snorkeling

since pain spasms and underwater don’t mix well, hubby went back to the sun tent to take another pain pill while we three snorkeled a bit.  sadly, no dolphins flocked to us.

sylvis-fish

tiny shark-looking-guy

peach-fish

my poor hubby spent the whole time missing me like crazy.  or not… 

this is how hubby spent our snorkel time

we spent much longer out there than i expected.  i think we all spent some time napping in the tent.  it was wonderfully relaxing.   when we finally packed up and walked back to the ferry landing, we had a bit of a wait.  peach found a nice cool seat while we were waiting.  shortly thereafter, he had to give it up to hubby so that he could lay down and writhe in pain a bit. 

peach was very fond of his new raft

much like the dolphins, the gators were also a no-show.  however, the stop at alligator lake did give me the opportunity to try out the cool face detection self-portrait feature on cobalt.  i turned it on, pressed the button, and took my time getting in place.   when i turned my head and looked at the camera, it recognized the new face and took three consecutive shots.  what a cool frikkin feature!!!

testing out the face-detection timer

i’m glad that we were able to get out and have a few good hours with our guests.  by the time we got back home, hubby was feeling terrible again.  a few hours ago, he spiked a fever.  a few minutes ago, i came into the room to find him asking for a scale.  i brought the scale into the bathroom and when he got out of bed i noticed that his torso and face were swollen, his stomach distended.  he stepped on the scale and was eight pounds heavier than normal.  that’s eight pounds of water bloating that came out of nowhere.  i’m very concerned and will be watching him carefully throughout the night.

after a third night/day of watching my poor boy writhe in pain on the bathroom floor, i dragged him to the emergency room this morning.  it was a long, frustrating, and ultimately useless affair.  basically, they said the original pain med wasn’t strong enough, prescribed him another, and told us to call the on-call urologist first thing monday.  um… i’m not in the medical field but i always thought that when a dr was on-call, it meant that the hospital calls them when a patient is in need.  if it was no big deal, we would have waited until monday on our own.  i was ticked.  i was texting back and forth with nightingale who agreed that it made no sense.  unfortunately, there was nothing we could do.  we filled the new script on our way home this afternoon and were pleased that it seemed to help.  after making sure that it was doing its job of controlling his pain, we decided to take our guests out for a night on the town.  around 22:00, we headed to spinnaker, our favorite hangout.

a tattooed stranger, peach, sylvis, hubby

hubby heard that lemons and limes help break up kidney stones

sylvis and me

loving on my poor, sick husband

sylvis and peach are ballroom dancers

showoffs

i think peach's big smile has something to do with the chick to the left of the umbrella

the rest of the afternoon was spent on the bathroom floor rubbing my hubby’s back and generally trying to give him any comfort i could.  i finally convinced him to take some of the pain meds that were prescribed to him so he was able to get out a bit tonight.  we’re losing another brit tomorrow so we met up with mello and hairy for a little sendoff celebration for hairy.  we started at mellow mushroom for a snack.

mello and hairy

peach and sylvis

peach, sylvis, and mello worshipping the magic shroom

we then walked across the street to ms. newby’s to listen to some music and hangout.  we had a good time.

sylvis and me at newby's

love hairy's captain pose, mello, hubby, and sylvis at newby's

i’m glad we got out some but by the time we got home, hubby was hurting pretty good again.  i’m guessing it’s going to be another crappy night…

last night was a lousy night.  hubby has had pain in his lower abdomen for several weeks now, he who hates going to the doctors had been twice in the last two weeks.  last night it changed; it moved to his kidney and was bad enough to make him sick.  i spent several hours on the bathroom floor with him, trying to make him more comfortable.  work at 07:00 was not fun.  hubby went to the doctors (again!) while i worked and waited for our house guests to arrive.  they sent him to the urgent care center for a ct scan and diagnosed him with a 3mm kidney stone in the uvj just above the bladder.  he made it home just as i was helping our guests with their luggage in the parking garage.  i finished out the work day and we hung out with our friends who we have not seen in two years. 

happily, my camera finally arrived too.  she is sleek and shiny i shall call her cobalt canon.

reflections of cobalt

 we had to leave work a bit early to go to the dentist for our cleanings.  sylvis accompanied us and then we took her to our running store so that she could get herself some new running shoes before the bridge run.  peach met us at the parking lot right before the run.  sylvis and i stayed together going over the bridge.  ironically, i slowed down for her.  by the time we started back over, however, the heat was taking its toll on me.  it was 113 with the heat index – by far the hottest whether i have EVER tried to be active in – and i started blacking out.  i let sylvis go on ahead and i slowed down.  every time i tried to speed up, i blacked out.  by the fourth time, i found myself stumbling into the railing and decided it wasn’t worth pushing myself to the point of passing out.  by that time, sylvis was already out of my range anyhow so i slowed to a walk and took my time getting back to the parking lot.  so there you have it, my first time having friends for the bridge run and they totally smoked me.  ah well, such is life.  i think my running is going on sabbatical for the summer.  i seriously cannot deal with such heat. 

after the bridge, we went to the concert in the park where we ended up meeting up with mello, nightingale, faith, and a couple other runners. 

hubby, sylvis, and peach

me and hubby chillin' at the park

hangin' with the runners

 when we got back home, it was time for some mariokart action.  i wasn’t even dead last every time! 

mariokart time!

saturday was the 2009 splash and dash race at the naval base.  it was a 1/4 mile swim and 5k run.  i had planned on doing it with my hubby but since i twisted my knee by tripping over the ladder when i was painting the week before, i didn’t register to race for fear of reinjury.  i had really wanted to…  i’m glad i didn’t.  while i am certain that i could have totally done the quarter mile swim and 5k run, i’m also aware that i would have been slow.  and these people were ATHLETES.  as in… my poor boy, who is totally in shape and athletic, was near the back of the pack.  the awards ceremony would have been over and everyone gone home by the time i would have finished.  to say i was intimidated by this crowd would be an understatement. 

however, this post is not about me.  it’s about my awesome husband and what a terrific job he did on his first swim/run race. 

numbered up and ready to race

getting in the mental game in his yellow head-c0nd0m

faith, hubby, and scooter waiting for the start

 it was a mass start meaning approximately one hundred racers got in the water and treaded in the middle of the channel until the whistle blew.  suddenly, it was just arms everywhere! 

sea of arms

this is the first race he’s done that included a transition of any kind so there was definitely a learning curve.  his official time was 42:10, which includes the transition.  i timed him myself so that i could tell him his swim time and figure out his transition time.  his swim was 10:10:72 which was significantly faster than the training he’d been doing at home.  his transition was just over three minutes so there is room for improvement there now that he knows how it’s done (not to mention that he cut his foot open on a shell getting out of the water).

fish outta water

transitioning

running off

even though the swim was faster than his training, hubby was a bit discouraged to be so close to the back when he got out of the water.  however, his run made him feel much better as he was able to pass several people on his legs. 

here comes hubby!

this was a great thumbs-up pic but for my phone's delayed response

he finished 80 overall.  considering these were military folks and serious athletes and that this was hubby’s first transition race, i think he did super!  and, more importantly, he had fun. 

and, even more importantly than that, i got the wicked cool shirt because he ordered too small!!!

last night was my favorite bridge yet!  why?  because i didn’t run and i wasn’t alone.  it rawked!  since i had just stopped limping from the twisted knee last weekend, i was planning on taking it pretty slow anyhow.  and then, just before we left, my belly got very upset making me even more apprehensive about putting too much effort into it.  luckily, when we got there, nightingale mentioned that she was considering walking because her stomach was hurting.  and then tat got there and said the same thing.  and then yoda showed up with her little ankle-biter and said she would be walking since the dog couldn’t keep up with a run.  so i got to be part of a comfortably walking foursome.  having conversation was such a refreshing change for the bridge!  we only walked half of it, turning around shortly before reaching the top because the dog was having a tough time climbing the hill. 

after a little of the parking lot hangout, we headed to our plaza for their summer concert in the park series.  we set up our lawn chairs and grabbed a bag of five guys and had a nice picnic while listening to good music in the park with thousands of our closest neighbors.  it was a good night.

i did it.  i ordered the first new camera to fill in for my dearly departed.  yes, my beloved camera was so special that it will take two to replace her.  since it is summer and the kayaking and surf-learning is in full swing, our immediate need is for a waterproof camera. 

we had a waterproof housing for the old one and it worked wonderfully, but it wasn’t very convenient.  first, it was an extra thing to have to carry.  second, you had to clean and grease the o-ring before each use.  and then there was just the super bulkiness of it.  not that it’s a bad solution… since you can get a housing for pretty much any camera, you can definitely have a much better camera for underwater use… but it’s just not an easy, spur-of-the-moment kind of thing.  as such, this time we decided to get two cameras, one for underwater and everyday use and one for real photography. 

i had pretty much decided on the olympus 1030sw but i had trouble pulling the trigger on it.  see, i’ve always been a canon girl; i don’t know anything about olympus but they seem to have all of the waterproof cameras and canon had, well, none…  until now.  a couple weeks ago i was set to suck it up and order the olympus when i saw that canon had finally released their own u/w model.  i’ve been mulling it over and then, today, my cousin-in-law sent me a link to a one-day-only sale promotion for the canon d10.  it was meant to be!  i can’t wait for it to get here!!!

is it here yet???

is through the fitting room with a handful of bathing suits.  depressing, it is.  but, i did manage to find four bathing suits that that were not completely grotesque on me.  i really wanted to wait until i was slightly more svelte before making this dreadful shopping expedition but i’m down to one suit.  one suit just doesn’t cut it when you live at the beach.  so now i’ve got four potential suits and hubby has final veto power when he gets home.  i’d like to keep at least two of them but we’ll see.  here’s hoping that next time i have to go through that, it’s because i’ve shrunk.

yep, i finally got texting – unlimited, at that.  i excitedly started texting everyone who i know has texting.  i’ve been holding out for years but it was time.  and… it’s fun!  thanks to my new, pretty phone, it’s easy too.  my nephew even declared it cool.  that’s saying something!

what a great sunday.  truly.  i slept until about 09:00, got up and watched a bit of tv until hubby came home from his run, made breakfast, and then went down to the beach.  we laid under our umbrella for about four hours talking to some neighbors, people watching, reading, and dozing.  i love laying in the shade with a nice breeze and listening to the waves.  such a great way to pass a sunday.  we then went to our plaza to upgrade my phone at the at&t store and grab some dinner.  such a wonderful day.  it was so great that i almost didn’t think about hubby abandoning me again tomorrow.  i’ve got to take him to the airport at the insanely early hour of 04:30.  that means it’s just about time for me to go to bed.

last night, i stayed up very late finishing the wall behind the bed in our room.  hubby doesn’t think it was worthwhile but it is exactly the effect i was looking for.  i did stripes in the same color as the rest of the wall, but glossy.  i was going for a subtle, classy stripe that would kind of mirror the subtle stripes in the underside of our comforter and sheets.  in certain lights and angles, you can’t even tell it’s striped but i like the surprise effect when you do see it.  originally, i had planned on using a glossy polycrylic for the stripes, which i think would have punched it up some but that stuff is crazy expensive.  anyhow, i’m pleased and since i’m the one who’s spent over a dozen hours on those walls this week that’s all that really matters.  this morning, i slept in very late and then got up and started reassembling my bedroom.  i’m so happy with the overall look.  and i’m thrilled beyond belief that i’ll be sleeping in my bed again tonight!  i do wish that we had gone with a slightly darker blue in the bedroom but that’s okay.  as it is, it is supposed to be a few shades darker than the bathroom and hallway but in most light, you can’t tell any difference in them at all.  now, the only unpainted walls in the condo are the common areas – front hall, kitchen, living room. 

you’ll have to excuse the below pix.  since the death of my beloved camera, i’ve remained too sad to replace her.  i really need to as i greatly miss having a camera but it’s just not as easy as running to the store and picking one up.  these pix were taken with hubby’s iphone which doesn’t have flash and just isn’t the best camera. 

you can see the subtle stripes in this shot

from this angle, you can hardly see the stripes at all and the hall looks like the same blue but it is actually a few shades lighter

we missed the bridge run last night.  we both layed down for a nap after work and slept right through the run.  it was nice to know we were missed as nightingale called to see if we were okay afterward.  this morning, we overslept again.  we’ve been sleeping in the guest room this week since our room is torn apart due to painting.  that means cell phone alarms which is generally hubby’s job.  last night, i crashed and didn’t even think to remind him.  apparently when he came to bed several hours later, it didn’t occur to him.  no alarm this morning meant i was forty minutes late to work.  not a problem since i didn’t take a lunch break but i am shocked that we overslept twice within thirteen hours.  and guess who’s still tired?